Numerical constraints on heat flux variations and lithospheric thinning
associated with passage of the Iceland plume beneath Greenland
Abstract
Plate reconstructions show that the plume feeding today’s Icelandic
volcanism passed beneath the continental lithosphere of Greenland
between 50 and 100 million years ago. While there has been ample
volcanism on the margins of Greenland, both on the west and the east
coasts, the thickness of the Greenland craton prevented surface
eruptions within Greenland, leaving details of the plume track unclear.
However, the passage of the plume is expected to leave a scar in the
lower continental lithosphere of Greenland, where the hot plume material
interacts with and erodes the stiff cratonic root. This interaction
should cause increased surface heat flux and reduced lithosphere
thickness along the plume track, and can potentially be constrained by
observations that constrain heat flux (e.g., magnetic data and ice flow
rates) and lithospheric structure (e.g., seismic tomography and
magnetotelluric modeling). While most seismic tomography models indicate
that there might be an east-west trending corridor of reduced
lithosphere thickness, recent heat flux maps inferred from magnetic data
show a northwest-southeast trending anomaly of high heat flux,
suggesting an alternative direction of the passage of the Iceland plume.
In order to resolve the discrepancy between the suggested hotspot
tracks, we use numerical models to investigate how the surface heat flux
would evolve in response to the passage of a plume beneath thick
cratonic lithosphere. Our work focuses both on the temporal evolution
(e.g. the onset and duration), and the shape of the heat flux anomaly,
as well as lithospheric thinning related to convective erosion of the
cratonic root by hot plume material. We show that both the onset and the
duration of the heat flux anomaly, as well as the degree of lithosphere
thinning, depend on various parameters, especially the viscosity
structure of lithosphere and asthenosphere and the plume strength. A
comparison between observations from Greenland and our model predictions
should provide new and better constraints on the subsurface structure of
Greenland, and how it was modified by its interaction with the Iceland
plume.